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Re: Declaring a ball lost…… SPOILER ALERT re Scottish Open

Originally Posted by Lazkir

Had a similar thing happen to me on Saturday comp, but from the opposite pov.

Par five, half decent drive, second shot was just about in range with a 3 wood, smacks it straight into a bush to the right of the green so I drop another ball calling provisional. I then hit this just to the back of the green. I tell PP's not to bother looking for original ball as I'd rather play the percentage shot and probably get down in two from where I was and take the bogey.

One of the PP's decide that wasn't going to happen and found my original. I played a pretty jammy shot from behind the bush and put it closer than where my provisional ended up, and walked away with a par... PP wasn't amused

was it a match or a normal single round? if the latter, your PP sounds like a right tw!t.

Re: Declaring a ball lost…… SPOILER ALERT re Scottish Open

Originally Posted by Capella

I am not saying you should search for the full five minutes. But deciding to not search for your ball at all after hitting a good provisional does seem a bit fishy to me.

I see your point about searching potentially having a link to the spirit if taking a provisional but the above kinda goes against your own viewpoint
i.e
You need to search due to spirit of the game etc.... but not for the maximum allowed time, so at what point on the clock would a search meet the spirit of the game? 10 seconds 50, two minutes. Its just not practical not least because of another big factor in the effort/quality of the search needed in order to meet the spirit of the game

So by extension you'd be into the realm of measuring effort of any search and does a 5 minute half hearted search = a one minute thorough search...

Re: Declaring a ball lost…… SPOILER ALERT re Scottish Open

Originally Posted by Capella

I am not saying you should search for the full five minutes. But deciding to not search for your ball at all after hitting a good provisional does seem a bit fishy to me.

Its not at all fishy, you've been penalised and playing on. You play a provisional on the expectation that you may not find your ball, if you were compelled to search in the deep deep cack then the chances are you might play 3 off the tee thus taking away the need to search but also penalising you if, by good fortune you're ball was to somehow be in a perfectly playable lie - but I reckon most would have a 5 minute search and then return to the tee which is the outcome nobody would really want

Re: Declaring a ball lost…… SPOILER ALERT re Scottish Open

Originally Posted by williamalex1

No , if his first ball was found and identified within the 5 minutes, it would be the ball in play and he would have to play it.

In equity (Rule 1-4) the provisional ball becomes the ball in play as soon as A picks it out of the hole, provided his original ball has not already been found in bounds within five minutes of B starting to search for it.